Client Success Stories

The problem

• Utilised numerous expense management processes
• Lack of effective process to gather spend data and trends
• Lengthy expense reimbursement cycle time
• Time-consuming and ineffective process to file expenses

The solution

• Valuable information on T&E spend data and trends
• One seamless, global expense reporting solution
• Process to file and approve expense reports is quicker and more efficient
• Stores international currency rates for automatic conversion
• Powerful travel allowance capabilities

The benefits

• Automatically records and reports VAT
• 100 percent employee adoption rate
• Increased employee and manager efficiency with automated solution
• Leverage expense claim data to negotiate favourable supplier rates
• Dramatically cut expense reimbursement time from two months to six days
• Increased control and visibility into travel spend through powerful reporting

With its ongoing innovation and commitment to technology, Ericsson has been the
telecommunications industry leader since the late 1800’s. With a presence in 175
countries and offices in 108 countries, the company relies on solutions that meet the
needs of their employees across the globe.

Using multiple expense management systems – from manual to Web-based – was
costly and inefficient for Ericsson to manage. The company lacked control and had no
means to track travel spend. Ericsson looked for an on-demand global solution that
would reduce costs and universally meet the needs of its employees.

After a brief pilot, Ericsson implemented Concur® Expense, a Web-based on-demand
service that streamlines and automates the expense process. As a global expense
management solution, Concur Expense drives significant costs out of the expense
process by automating the processes Ericsson uses to manage employee spend. In just
the matter of a few months, Ericsson implemented Concur Expense in India, Sweden,
Netherlands and Germany.

“Concur is the perfect system for us,” Ali Sadek said, Ericsson’s global travel and
expense manager. “The most important thing for us was to have one standard global
process. The second most important thing to us was to control costs and know how
much we’re spending and analyse why we’re travelling. With Concur, we have all that.”

When it came to choosing an automated expense solution, Concur’s powerful global
functionality met the needs of a multi-national company like Ericsson. Prior to using
Concur, Ericsson employees manually entered VAT, travel allowance and currency
rates into expense reports. With Concur, VAT is automatically recorded and reported
in both local and foreign VAT, travel allowance reimbursement rates are automatically
presented, and currency rates are automatically captured. Concur makes it easy for
Ericsson’s employees to complete their expense report quickly, with minimal effort.

With Concur Expense’s powerful reporting capabilities, Ericsson now has the ability
to monitor the suppliers employees frequently book. With Concur, management
can quickly analyse employee spend data to optimise supplier negotiations, spend
management and fraud reduction

Now that Ericsson has a better view into their employee spend, the company can
negotiate better deals with suppliers they use most, like hotels and taxis.
Plus, the reporting and access to precise data allows Ericsson to ensure their
contracted rates with suppliers are being honoured.

“The control and transparency of being able to see what we’re actually spending
saves us money,” Sadek said.

Ericsson has gained additional visibility into employee spend as a result of
its global corporate card agreement with American Express. By integrating
Concur with a corporate credit card, expense data is automatically imported
and pre-populated into the expense report, saving time and improving accuracy.

“The general corporate card functionality is a big advantage for
Ericsson employees,” Sadek said. “By using American Express, it makes
it easier for travellers to claim their expenses and saves time, as the
corporate card is linked to Concur.”

Delivered over the Web, Concur Expense is intuitive and user-friendly,
enabling employees to quickly create their expenses. With Concur, Ericsson
employees are reimbursed in six days, rather than up to two months. The
speed of reimbursement not only increases user satisfaction, but has also
helped Ericsson realise a 100-percent employee adoption rate.

Not only does Concur Expense increase productivity for employees, but it also
benefits management. With Concur’s automated solution, Ericsson management
can quickly review, approve and process expense reports – a great improvement
from Ericsson’s once costly, manual, Excelbased expense reporting process.

“For management approving an expense report is easy,” Sadek said. “They push one
button to approve expense reports. That’s it.”

Since adopting Concur Expense’s automated, on-demand expense reporting
process, Ericsson has realised increased control, efficiency and cost savings. After
seeing great success, Ericsson is deploying Concur Expense in 28 additional countries
within the next five months.